The Answer to the Question
by JMHaughey
Summary: My entry for the Bonesology challenge, "Booth Pops the Question."


"**Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."**

**Ralph Waldo Emerson**

* * *

Seeley Booth had done this twice before yet this felt different. It just did.

As of late, the light that had so brightly guided their relationship was flickering in the wind. Almost as if in any singular instance, the flame would be out. It was not due to lack of love, fighting for what they wanted, or a third party. Whatever the reason, they were clinging onto it.

Brennan's cell phone vibrated next to her computer at the Jeffersonian. Booth. She glanced at it and smiled. "Is it lunch time already?" She said into the phone.

"Not quite, Bones. Umm, can you meet me somewhere?" Booth sounded a little strange on the phone.

Brennan wasn't sure what was going on but he didn't sound like himself. "Are you alright, Booth? Do we have another case."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just need you to meet me here." And he rattled off an address and hung up.

Brennan scribbled the address on the post-it, grabbing her bag and coat on the way out.

* * *

As Brennan was driving something seemed so familiar about this area, yet she couldn't place which in this moment was odd. She saw Booth leaning against his car on the side of the road. She pulled up behind and got out to meet him. "Booth, what's going on?"

He smiled as she approached him. Without a single word, he reached out, took her hand and lead her into the building behind them. "Do you remember this place, Bones?" Pool tables were in the back and the bar was nothing special but it brought back some memories.

"Yes. You brought me here to get me drunk and have sex with me. After you fired me."

He laughed. "I'm still only sorry about the firing part." He sat down on the stool across from her and waved the bartender over. Then, he reached down and flipped over his tie. There was a pinup girl looking over at Brennan.

She reached over to it and caressed it. "You still have this tie?"

"It's my favorite. It reminds me of you." He stroked her hair, then traced his fingers delicately down her arm connecting their hands together. "Bones, I know we've been through a lot. Maybe that's an understatement. I just need you to know, I've always loved you and that I will always love you. Even when things get complicated, messy and strained. You mean everything to me. I just needed you to know that." Just as if on cue, the bartender brings over two shot glasses and a bottle of tequila. "So, I wanted to bring you here to remind ourselves how much we've changed after all these years."

"I love you too, Booth." Brennan clinked her shotglass to Booth and smiled.

He still clutched her hand as he lead her out of the pool hall. "We'll come back for your car later."

She stopped him in the door way. "It's not raining but if we are reminscing we might as well not forget this." She reached out and pulled Booth towards her. Her hands clutched his jacket making it impossible to figure out where one person began and the other ended. Their mouths meshed together, tongues wagging in each other's mouth for a few minutes. They separated. Each clumsily tried to regain their composure as if a force greater than themselves was at work.

He meekly mumbled, "Ah, yeah . . . Bones, um, on to the next place," while he straightened out his tie, trying to catch his didn't say too much on the drive the next destination. Booth stole glances of his partner. She did the same. Booth stopped his car and announced they had made come to their final place on this whirlwind trip down memory lane.

"Booth," Brennan spoke up, "Are you alright?"

"Better than ever, Bones." He opened the car door. "Chop, chop." He smiled as he went to her side of the car to open the door.

He lead her to passed an escalator, to a staircase. The glowing Washington Monument was at her back. It was dimly lit, the fog left by rain earlier in the week hung in the air. Brennan looked at Booth, "We've certainly been here before. Maybe in hindsight, it was what we needed even though we didn't think we could get through it." She placed her hand over his heart and Booth drew her close into him. "I love you, Booth." She whispered into his ear.

He kissed her hair, "I love you, too." Booth stepped back and looked right into her eyes. "I've been searching for the right words, the right time, the right everything. Then I realized our life, our love, everything about us has never been 'right'. Our relationship, no matter the disagreements met bad timing and obstacles, has been my greatest joy. Bones, you have always what's best for me – even when I thought it was something or someone else – you have never given up on me. You are my best friend, my partner, the mother of my child. I hope you will do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

She brushed away a tear, "Yes, of course."

With that, he took out a ring as he slid the ring onto her left ring finger, "This belonged to my grandmother." The ring was simple gold band, soldered together with white gold where a diamond sat raised flanked beside two smaller diamond nuggets. He went on, "Their relationship was the first one I witnessed full of love. You know how Pops can be. I knew I wanted something like that. We have that. They had their 30, 40, and 50 years of love. So can we."

"It's perfect, Booth. Thank you!" She leaned in and kissed Booth again.

And so began their journey to thirty years.


End file.
